Big East Swell

Over the past few days, Oahu's east side has been pummeled with a big east swell. Nate and I took a run up to Makapu'u Lighthouse yesterday to check out the action, and also caught a few pics of big swells pounding the Hanauma Bay cliffs. Enjoy.

Six Recent Videos

Matt and I were sitting around watching some of these videos from the past few weeks and just cracking up, so I thought I'd post a few for everyone to enjoy. Nate is reaching some fun milestones, such as sitting up, eating solid food, and making verbalizations that are getting closer to language.

He also makes the best farting noises of anyone I know:

He's still figuring out some basic physics:

When learning to sit up, sometimes it takes a little while to get it just right... Yup, you are going to want to watch this one a couple of times. :o) Poor little guy.

This was Nate's first bite of "solid" food - delicious rice cereal!

The boys having a kick-fest...Nate's favorite sport.

And if nothing has made you laugh out loud thus far, this one is guaranteed to!

Halloween Fun

The Stevens Family had a great Halloween day. We took a trip to the North Shore to go hiking, swimming and to watch some big surf (which didn't end up being all that big). We started with a hike up a mountain over by Dillingham Airfield. There were some great views of the ocean from the top, but probably the coolest part was the gliders that soared just over our heads. Dillingham is where they do commercial glider rides (which Matt took me on the day he proposed!) and it was so cool to see them glide over us almost noiselessly. We also enjoyed watching the skydive plane nose-dive and land every twenty minutes or so. After they drop off the skydivers at 11,000 feet, the customers are out and there's no use wasting gas to slowly cruise down to ground level, so the plane basically plunges what looks like nearly straight down until just before nearing the airstrip, where they suddenly pull up and set the plane down, even before the skydivers reach the ground. Crazy!

Here is Matt and Nate in our hiking backpack. We rigged up this umbrella to protect our super-haole baby. We climbed the mountain on the left in this picture.

Cool cat in his BabyBanz.
We made it! We chilled out at the picnic table at the top for a while.

Nate and Daddy.

Now for a bunch of pictures of our munchkin:

Aww, Dad.

The whole family in our shades. We then went for a swim at the protected lagoon at Shark's Cove. Nate has outgrown his swim diaper so he wore his birthday suit. Now that he is six months old, we can use sunscreen on him, so we are looking forward to doing more activities with him. We loaded him up with sunscreen, even in his hair!

That night, he transformed into a monkey!!! He loved the banana sewn into his pocket and kept sucking on it.

Matt looked very handsome in a hand-me-down flight suit from Tim.

I wore a saree I picked up while in India.

I love this picture - we would let Nate grab his own candy, and he has this "Oh no, you caught me!" look on his face here that I love.

Trip Part 1: Illinois

We had a wonderful time on our Illinois/Colorado trip! Nate was an amazing traveler, especially considering all of the flights we took to get around. We started our trip in Rockford, just outside Chicago, with a visit with Matt's paternal grandparents. Nate loved meeting his great-grandparents, too!

Brrrrr...it was cold! Nate and Great-Grandpa roll around on the carpet.
Great-grandma entertains Nate while we enjoy her delicious cooking!

We went on a beautiful walk along the Rock River with Matt's grandfather.

Matt and his grandfather check out this dock that ends in the middle of a pond.

The fall trees were beautiful!

After a couple of days with family, we went into Chicago and met up with a bunch of Matt's old college friends. First stop was the Ledge on the Skydeck of the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower). It's a glass box extended from the side of the building 103 floors up. It turned my stomack in knots to look straight down through the glass to the street WAY below.

This was pretty freaky. I didn't spend too long out there!

Matt and Nate on the Ledge. I can't post the one of Nate by himself on here... The next morning, bright and early, was the Chicago Marathon. It was a frigid 33 degrees at the start. Despite the temperature, the skies were clear and we were in for a beautiful day. This is a picture of the start. It takes quite some time for the 45,000 runners to cross the start line. Matt had pre-qualified to start near the front of the pack, so at this point he was well into the race.

Here he is just before the halfway point, looking strong and moving fast.

Here he is going over the bridge right before the finish. Can you believe he's run 26 miles? Matt finished with an incredible time of 2:38:49. He was the 167th overall finisher. Congratulations!!!

Matt's college roommate Jason and his wife Natalie were there for the finish. I'm pointing at Nate's shirt that says "MY DAD IS RAD." Isn't that the truth?! (Thanks Desiree and Tim for the shirt!)

One of our favorite pictures from the trip is this picture of the overall race winner, Sammy Wanjiru, holding Nate. He was the Beijing Olympic gold medalist for the marathon, and set a new North American record that morning by beating the course record by one second. I think Nate will like seeing this one when he's older. Quite a few of Matt's college friends came into town for the weekend. We had a fun celebration with some deep dish pizza at the Steingard's that evening after the marathon. Here are three college buddies with their new kiddos.Congratulations to the three finishers. Matt's friend Ryan and his brother also finished the marathon that morning. The next morning we departed for Colorado. Check out the next post for our adventures there!

Trip Part 2: Colorado

Our trip continued as we journeyed to Colorado, stopping over in Minnesota during a snowstorm. We met up with our former youth pastor, Rob, and his family in Denver. That evening, we took Rob's girls to Casa Bonita, the most unique restaurant I have ever been to. Matt had some fond childhood memories of this place, which featured a maze of sights and sounds, (so-so) Mexican food, cowboy shoot-outs, a cliff diver, a 30 foot waterfall, and all-you-can-eat sopapillas. It was definitely more than I expected. Wow.

Nate, Rob and Matt at Casa Bonita. We stayed the night at Rob and Kendis' house, and Nate had some play time with Kendis and Alia the next morning.
Our little cowboy.

We enjoyed having breakfast and catching up with one of Lesley's old college friends, Willy.

Then it was off to the mountains. We stayed three nights in a cabin about halfway between Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. This area is right on the Continental Divide, and is stunningly beautiful. It was also pretty cold!

Matt with Long's Peak in the background.

Pushing Nate over snowy trails was challenging!

But he loved it!

My handsome husband.

Can you spot Matt in this one?

Fester and Fatty hats (old high school nicknames).

Matt taking needless risks on a bridge railing with frigid water below. Sigh.

The whole family on a hike around Lily Lake.

Nate and I on the porch of our snug little cabin. We enjoyed a roaring fire in our fireplace each evening. A bear got into the garbage dumpster two nights we were there. Yikes!

We took this Old West shot at a little place in Estes Park. Don't mess with those cowboys! We then headed up to Fort Collins and visited Matt's childhood homes and walked around the CSU campus. Nate and I took this shot on the CSU oval in front of the administration building.

We borrowed my friends the Kuhlman's bikes and trailer and went for a bike ride around the neighborhood with Nate in tow. It was super fun. We had Nate in somewhere around 10,000 layers to stay warm.

Then we had a BBQ that night with Lesley's college friends and their kiddos that still live in Fort Collins. Thanks to Jen and Tim for hosting such a fun evening!

Lastly, we stopped by to see Lesley's paternal grandfather in Denver. We are so glad that Nate got to meet some extended family. In the picture are Lesley's Aunt Judy, Aunt Jeannine, Grandpa McBane, her cousin Lisa, Lisa's daughter Athena, and Lesley and Nate.

We had such a wonderful trip and are so glad that we got to see so many dear friends and family members. We are now back home and celebrating Nate's six month birthday today!

I Can Roll! Both Ways!

It's been a little while since I've updated the blog, and as we're about to leave for our big mainland adventure, I thought I should post an update since I won't be posting for a while. Nate is a happy and healthy 18 pound wonder. He learned to roll over on Matt's birthday, 9/28, from back to tummy. He would then get stuck. Today, however, exactly one week later, he figured out that he can roll from his tummy back onto his back. Great job, Nate! Now it's time to think about babyproofing. He isn't traveling far with his rolls, yet, but it's amazing how now that he knows he can roll, he just flips right over and makes it look so easy.

Our little family is super excited about our upcoming Chicago/Denver trip. The plan is to start our visit with Matt's paternal grandparents and aunt & uncle in Rockford, outside of Chicago for a couple of days. We'll then head into the city to spend time with a bunch of Matt's college friends who live in the city or are traveling to the city. The big marathon is this Sunday, October 11. If you are interested in tracking Matt, you can go to the Chicago Marathon website and they will send you emails or text messages for free when he crosses the 10K, half marathon, 30K and finish line.

We will then head over to Denver and spend some time with our old youth pastor, Rob, and his family. From there, we'll head up into the mountains and spend a few days in a cabin outside of Estes Park. Then on to Fort Collins to visit some of Lesley's college friends. The last day of our trip, we will be visiting Lesley's paternal grandfather and some extended family in Denver.

Please pray that Matt will be healthy and uninjured as he races the marathon which he has been training so hard for, and that we would all stay healthy, especially Nate, as we travel. I will be sure to post Matt's race results and some pictures from our trip upon our return.

And now, Nate demonstrates how to roll in both directions:

Back to Tummy:

Tummy to Back: